Josh

Welcome to Josh's Web Page. It has been created to keep friends and family updated about our precious child Josh.

BLOOD COUNTS AND THEIR NORMAL RANGES FOR HEALTHY CHILDREN
White Blood Cell (WBC) - Measures the body's ability to fight infection (4.0-12.0 K/uL)
Absoloute Neutrofil Count(ANC) - Measures body's ability to withstand infection (1500 and higher)
Hemoglobin - Measures ability of the blood to carry oxygen - (11.5-14.5)
Platelets - Necessary to repair the body and stop bleeding - (140-450 K/uL)

Journal

Thursday, January 17, 2008 10:02 AM CST

Happy 2008!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Our holidays were great! We enjoyed having my parents visit, and as usual look forward to the next one.

Some highlights of what has gone on since the last update – 5 months ago.

School is going very well for both boys. They love school, teachers and friends.

Fall break, in October, was spent visiting Papa Randy and Stephanie in New Hampshire. What a beautiful place! We all had a great time visiting and seeing many new sights. The boys especially liked hanging out with Rosy and Aiden. We rode the train into Boston, and took the subway to the Children’s Museum. We look forward to another visit.

The Secret Lair was built on November 11th. Yeah! The weekend of construction was a very exciting time, Josh did not watch the construction process. Instead he stayed away so he could be surprised. And boy was he ever!!! The Lair is a great hang out for the boys and for their buddies. Make-A-Wish really did a great job all the way from the construction all the way to a house warming party for Josh. We are very thankful for such an awesome organization.

Josh finished up his 4th season of basketball while Tommy finished his 2nd of flag football. Josh is now taking a break from basketball and has been going to Tumble Town – a tumbling and gymnastics class. He really seems to like it! Tommy on the other hand decided to continue with another season of flag football and is having a great season. Tommy also had the opportunity to attend a Football Clinic sponsored by the Fiesta Bowl – Thanks Uncle Nick!!!

The boys saved their money and purchased a Wii. (a gaming system) Their favorite game to play is Guitar Hero. Josh is awesome at this game. He has had a 268 note streak, I’m lucky if I can get 20 in a row. Tommy is also doing very well at the game. He plays several songs well hand has got a 4 star rating on many of them.

This past Tuesday, Josh went to Phoenix Children’s for his monthly treatment. All is going well. Josh spent a great deal of time talking with the nursing staff about what he is learning in Health this year. They were so impressed with his knowledge of the blood, that they allowed him into the lab so he could take a look a slide of his blood cells. It was so interesting. He was able to see the red blood cells, white cells and platelets. They showed him the process of staining the slide so they could examine the cells. They even gave him a book to take to school so he could share with his classmates the various diagrams of the blood and the various cells. Also at the appointment, a great deal of time was spent talking about his FINAL TREATMENT appointment scheduled for February. It is sure hard to believe that 3 years 2 months is just about over. At his final appointment, Josh will undergo a bone marrow draw along with a spinal tap to examine the spinal fluid and to administer the chemo that is used to treat the spinal fluid. They will send out his marrow for cytogenetics testing. It will take an even closer look at his marrow, more so than the microscope view of the marrow done at the hospital. We hope and pray that the results will show an all clear. Josh will continue with check up appointments through out the next two years.

And finally in April, Tommy will be making his 1st Communion and Confirmation. This will be a very special time for him and we all are very excited. Come and celebrate with us!

Please keep the prayers coming for Josh and also for my Aunt Lily who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor. She will begin treatment next week and could use some prayers for strength and good health!!!!

Hospital Information:

Patient Room: Home sweet home!

Phoenix Childrens Hospital
1919 E, Thomas Road
Phoenix, Arizona 85016

Links:

E-mail Author: josh.holt@cox.net